What a terrific night to get back to one of our favourite tasks.. The Bike Garden!

We were still on a high after an amazing weekend of having the Great North Run in town. We had first-time half marathoners, PBs, veterans of GNR and everything in between to celebrate, as well as thanking our terrific cheer station runners and walkers! I was so proud we were able to lend a hand to the mini and junior runs on Saturday too, helping local charity Heel and Toe to take pictures of and hand out goody bags to their mini army of runners. Thanks to Miranda and Katy for pulling that together. The report and pictures for that are here.

As if that wasn't enough, there was a Newcastle Parks task led by Miranda that you can read all about here and a Sunday mission away from the GNR chaos for Newcastle Parks too bringing our total good deeds for the weekend to an outstanding 21! Thanks to Aimee for leading on Sunday when even getting around Newcastle was logistically tough.

If you'd like to become a Task Force runner, you just need to have done 10 good deeds and lead or list a GoodGym Community Mission once every couple of months. Just let me or one of the task force know if you're interested.

Katy led a number balance warm up followed by a circuit to make sure everyone was ready to go (especially those with aching legs after yesterday!) while I made a head start with two walking groups (Charlotte getting an extra head start on her crutches!) up to The Bike Garden This great hidden gem is a vibrant community space where people join in on regular food growing activities ,as well as hiring it for public or private events. We haven't visited this great space for a while apart from our regular Monthly Mission at Nunsmoor Park, so the Task Owner, Jill, was really pleased to have us along for the night!

Tasks tonight were:

• Planting Boston Ivy in the compost area

• Clearing and replanting tyres ( see Louise's great before and after pics!)

• Weeding

• Looking important with a wheelbarrow

• Burying logs in the Little Diggers area

• Swishing around in the first GoodGym 100 tshirt in Newcastle - I'm looking at you, Andrew.

We had just 30 minutes to get it all done tonight and not only did we complete it, we also got a bonus task of emptying a bag of gravel and spreading it at the back of the Bike Garden building! It was brilliant to see our new runner Lydia getting stuck in with two tasks and lots of chat, including hearing a few "favourite tasks" stories from the regulars.

We really impressed Jill with the work we got done, and brightened a few of our own days up too.

Thanks for today, I had a pants day and tonight made it so much better! - Louise

We were so grateful to be able to stay in the Bike Garden for the fitness session tonight, and after a few weeks of high action super competitive fitness activities, I rewarded everyone with a lovely stretch and pilates session in which we flopped, crunched and squeezed our own bums. Lovely.

Andrew's leading a new community mission for the Ouseburn Trust this Saturday which will lead us up to visiting them for a Group Run in a few weeks time. It would be great to make that one massive so sign up and pop along if you can.

Next week is really special as we are celebrating 10 years of GoodGym nationally. We'd love to have you along to the Angel of the North on Tuesday for a special photo followed by a picnic and some games. All the information for that is here but don't worry if you can't make it, we will be taking brilliant photos and doing great things at next week's Group Run too.

Have a good week doing good things! Anji x